Timeline

1934

May -- Great dust storms spread from the Dust Bowl area. The drought is the worst ever
in U.S. history, covering more than 75 percent of the country and affecting 27
states severely.

June -- The Frazier-Lemke Farm Bankruptcy Act is approved. This act restricted the
ability of banks to dispossess farmers in times of distress. Originally
effective until 1938, the act was renewed four times until 1947, when it
expired.

1935

January -- The federal government forms the Drought Relief Service to coordinate relief
activities. The DRS bought cattle in counties that were designated emergency
areas for $14 to $20 a head. Those unfit for human consumption -- more than 50
percent at the beginning of the program -- were destroyed. The remaining cattle
were given to the Federal Surplus Relief Corporation to be used in food
distribution to families nationwide.

March -- FDR's Shelterbelt Project begins. The project called for large-scale planting
of trees across the Great Plains, stretching in a 100-mile wide zone from
Canada to northern Texas, to protect the land from erosion. Native trees, such
as red cedar and green ash, were planted along fence rows separating
properties, and farmers were paid to plant and cultivate them. The project was
estimated to cost 75 million dollars over a period of 12 years. When disputes
arose over funding sources (the project was considered to be a long-term
strategy, and therefore ineligible for emergency relief funds), FDR transferred
the program to the WPA, where it had limited success.

April 8 -- FDR approves the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act, which provides $525
million for drought relief, and authorizes creation of the Works Progress
Administration, which would employ 8.5 million people.

April 27 -- Congress declares soil erosion "a national menace" in an act establishing the
Soil Conservation Service in the Department of Agriculture (formerly the Soil
Erosion Service in the U.S. Department of Interior). Under the direction of
Hugh H. Bennett, the SCS developed extensive conservation programs to retain
topsoil and prevent irreparable damage to the land. Farming techniques such as
strip cropping, terracing, crop rotation, contour plowing and cover crops were
advocated. Farmers were paid to practice soil-conserving farming techniques.

December -- At a meeting in Pueblo, Colorado, experts estimate that 850,000,000 tons of
topsoil has blown off the Southern Plains during the course of the year, and
that if the drought continued, the total area affected would increase from
4,350,000 acres to 5,350,000 acres in the spring of 1936. C.H. Wilson of the
Resettlement Administration proposed buying up 2,250,000 acres and retiring it
from cultivation.

1940

The downward spiral in the number of farms in the U.S. begins. Farmers would
decrease from 30 percent of the population to less than 3 percent by 1981. The
transformation from an agricultural society to an industrial and urban one was
due in part to the technological developments within farming and to the growth
of off-farm job opportunities. Many people left for better opportunities, since
the average income for people on farms was 67 percent that of non-farm workers
in 1948. Hundreds of thousands of farmers weren't able to keep up with the
increasing capital required by modern farming methods. Some tenants and
sharecroppers were forced out, as owners with modern machinery were able to
cultivate large areas without them. Other small farmers went broke or sold out
to larger neighbors.